"operating system not found" error

mkennedy

hi.
i have had a dell inspiron 2650 for about 3 years now but recently on trying to boot it i get an error saying "operating system not found".

after talking to dell about the problem they said the problem was a faulty hard-drive and that i should buy a new one.

so i went and got a new hard-drive.

but after installing it and trying to load windows xp on it (booting from cd) i'm still getting the same error message "operating system not found".

anyone know what the problem might be?
i've checked the bios and the hard-drive is not actually listed there.

also, what comeback with dell do i have if the problem is not a faulty hard-drive but something else, after they instructed me that the problem WAS a faulty hard-drive and recommended i get one.

help please!!

angelofdeath

not sure about this, but you probably don't have much comeback unless you got an extended warranty, you'll have to send it back and pay for it to be fixed, it sounds like a faulty ide controller to me, which you can't do much about yourself

edit:// just to clarify, when you put in the xp disk, did you set up the boot order to boot from cd first?

TerrorFirmer

Are you sure you did it right - when booting from the XP cd the initial setup runs even if you haven't got a hard drive connected. Sounds like the Pc is still trying to boot from the hd - make sure you set the cd to the primary boot device.

jcoote

mave u got the hard drive connect properly and the correct jumper settings.

go into the bios and set the cd drive as the primary boot device and it should boot from cd as havok said

after that u are lookin at more serious stuff

majiktripp

Are you sure the hard drive doesn't show up in the bios? If you can try it on another machine and see can you get it to show up,if possible format it too on the other machine to make sure its alright.It does sound like user fault here and not more hardware issues.....

gamer

make sure hard drive jumpered as master ,on 1st ide cable principal ,on the end ide connector,set bios ,to autodetect all harddrives.

mkennedy

angelofdeath wrote:

not sure about this, but you probably don't have much comeback unless you got an extended warranty, you'll have to send it back and pay for it to be fixed, it sounds like a faulty ide controller to me, which you can't do much about yourself

edit:// just to clarify, when you put in the xp disk, did you set up the boot order to boot from cd first?

yeah, i have gone into the bios and set the boot sequence to boot from cd.

then with the windows xp cd in the cdrom drive i turn off the laptop and turn it on again so it boots from the cd drive.

i am then asked if i want to install a new operating system and i choose this.

then it goes thru the INITIAL STAGES OF THE WINDOWS SETUP (various files seem to be loading during this time) but at the end of this i get the "operating system not found error".

btw, is a faulty ide connection expensive to fix.

thanks.

Ruu_Old

If its the actual controller on the motherboard then I don't think theres a way to repair it without replacing the motherboard or perhaps if there was a PCI ide card you could pickup and use that but I'm not sure. Try replacing the cable first.

mkennedy

majiktripp wrote:

Are you sure the hard drive doesn't show up in the bios? If you can try it on another machine and see can you get it to show up,if possible format it too on the other machine to make sure its alright.It does sound like user fault here and not more hardware issues.....

yeah, nothing is listed opposite the hard-drive setting in the bios.

i'll see if i can put it in another machine. how do you go about formatting it though?

interestingly though i'm getting the same message with my old hard-drive and this new hard-drive. does that suggest there's probably nothing wrong with the hard-drives themselves?

mkennedy

gamer wrote:

make sure hard drive jumpered as master ,on 1st ide cable principal ,on the end ide connector,set bios ,to autodetect all harddrives.

hi.
how do i set the hard drive to be jumpered as master.

and how do i set the bios to detect all hard drives.

sorry but i'm not too familiar with this more technical stuff.
thanks.

generalmiaow

somebody correct me if I'm wrong, but since this is a laptop and I'm assuming it''s a 2.5" drive, will it even have jumpers? at the very least, every 2.5" drive I've ever come across was configured to work correctly from the start.

mkennedy: What is the make/model number of your new drive?

generalmiaow

also:I just rebooted my dell laptop, it's a slightly newer model than the 2650 but from what I remember the CMOS setup hasn't changed. the BIOS settings are very limited, it shows you that there's a drive installed, but there's no way of setting it to autodetect or anything like that. I've a feeling this is the motherboard, but I wouldn't give up just yet.

Ruu_Old

I have heard that some 2.5" laptop hard drives are shipped with no jumpers and some are, so perhaps it varies by manufacturer.

mkennedy

hi.
sorry, i should probably have pointed out the dell inspiron 2650 is a laptop.

so what i did was i just slotted the 2.5' drive in. do i still have to worry about master/slave/jumper settings issues?

and if so, is it easy to get access to these on a laptop. tbh, i can't see an obvious way of opening up my machine to take a look inside.

anyway, i have pushed the drive in as far as it can go but it still says "none" opposite the hard-drive listing in the bios.

is there anything else in the bios etc that could tell me what the problem is?

@generalmaiow: the make seems to be western digital. it also says WD scorpio on it. there's no obvious model no. on it though.

generalmiaow

You shouldn't have to worry about opening the laptop for the jumper settings, they'd be on the drive itself. however, near as I can see, there's no jumpers on the scorpio. If you do have to open the laptop at some stage, Dell's website will have a service manual for your laptop in PDF form hidden somewhere that you can download.

The dell BIOS setup is very limited in all the inspirons I've ever used, they never specified anything other than "Hard Drive: 60GB" or similar. One thing you should try definitely is shining a torch into your hard drive slot to see if there's any bent pins.

mkennedy

generalmiaow wrote:

You shouldn't have to worry about opening the laptop for the jumper settings, they'd be on the drive itself. however, near as I can see, there's no jumpers on the scorpio. If you do have to open the laptop at some stage, Dell's website will have a service manual for your laptop in PDF form hidden somewhere that you can download.

The dell BIOS setup is very limited in all the inspirons I've ever used, they never specified anything other than "Hard Drive: 60GB" or similar. One thing you should try definitely is shining a torch into your hard drive slot to see if there's any bent pins.

thanks.
i'll do that.
but bent pins sound serious. do you know is it easily fixed and how much would it cost.
thanks.

generalmiaow

you need only open it up bend them back yourself with a pliers

mkennedy

generalmiaow wrote:

you need only open it up bend them back yourself with a pliers

tbh, i've just checked and the pins look fine. no obvious signs of them being damaged in any way.

and the drive itself is flush with everything else. ie it aligns properly with the outer casing which screws on no problem.
so physically at least it seems it's connected ok.
any other ideas.